Investigation of the environmental fate and behaviour of emerging pollutants applying mass spectrometric techniques

摘要

The fate of synthetic organic pollutants is governed by their physical-chemical properties and the environmental conditions predominant at contaminated sites. Those interacting parts, the pollutant at the one hand and the environment at the other, can enhance or suppress microbial degradation, which plays the most important role in bioremediation. Adsorption of unpolar compounds to suspended solids and glass hinders the application of common degradation tests to study the fate of these pollutants in the aquatic environment. Standardized degradation tests were adapted in order to follow up the fate of this kind of compounds, too. An example will be given by clotrimazole [1, 2], a pharmaceutical used to treat yeast infections which was included on the OSPA List of Chemicals for Priority Action in 2002.rnIn contrary, highly polar compounds disperse within the aquatic environment resulting in concentrations insufficient to achieve the threshold value for adaptation. Some other emerging pollutants are not degradable from the outset due to a lack of metabolizing enzymes. Bentazone, a herbicide applied in crop and rice protection passes waste water treatment plants [3] and any laboratory degradation test carried out so far with fixed bed bioreactors or a membrane bioreactor [4]. Nevertheless transformation products can be monitored generated from this compound [5]. A simulated photodegradation test and the application of ultra performance liquid chromatography - time of flight mass spectrometry clarified the transformation of bentazone by means of exact mass measurement.rnIf emerging pollutants do not undergo biodegradation or any non-biotic attack they may persist within the aquatic environment like barbiturates [6], a class of sedative hypnotics already and almost completely replaced by benzodiazepines since many years.